The buses were crowded and the streets were full of revelers, but gridlock did not suffocate San Francisco on a frenzied weekend of big crowds at events spread across the city.

Muni managed to haul hundreds of thousands of extra passengers, and while some buses and streetcars were packed full or moved slowly, the transit agency's strategy of flooding key lines with extra service seemed to work.

The mostly smooth operation was seen as a good sign leading into next year's America's Cup races, which some have estimated will bring 3 million spectators to the city.

The weekend's overbooked schedule of events was expected to draw a million extra visitors to San Francisco, many of them using mass transit.

"Going into the weekend, the agency and agencies across the city came together and put together a plan," said Paul Rose, a spokesman for the Municipal Transportation Agency. "At this point, it looks like it's been very effective. Things have gone smoothly throughout the weekend."

Muni estimated it carried 135,000 more passengers on Sunday, and 100,000 more on Saturday, than the typical 375,000 it hauls on an average weekend day. BART officials said they set a ridership record on Saturday, carrying 319,484 passengers. The previous weekend day record was 278,586, set on Sept. 1, 2007, when the Bay Bridge was closed and there were three major sporting events. Average ridership on Saturdays this year is 202,000. Sunday statistics were not yet available.

'War room' set up

Transportation agency officials handled the surge of transit riders and traffic by setting up a "war room" with 15 officials from different divisions of the agency gathered around a table armed with laptops, cell phones and two-way radios on the eighth floor of the MTA's South Van Ness Avenue headquarters.

The officials checked regularly with inspectors, station agents and supervisors in the field and regularly monitored the locations of Muni vehicles and the size of the crowds in an attempt to anticipate problems. Buses, streetcars, and traffic and parking officers were shifted to places where they were needed most, busting up traffic jams and preventing gridlock.

"Our plan seems to be well -conceived," said John Haley, the agency's transit director. "But I think we will be judged based not only on the plan but on how we adjust to changing conditions."

Those conditions Sunday included a broken-down bus on Market Street, an angry man in a wheelchair who parked himself in front of a bus near Fisherman's Wharf, surges in ridership on the F-Market and 5L-Fulton lines and reports that the Blue Angels might be forced by foggy conditions to cancel their show, sending crowds flocking to Muni earlier than anticipated.

People around the table quietly scrambled to deal with each problem, sending mechanics to the disabled bus and officers to the angry man in the street. The Blue Angels delayed their flight for an hour, creating the need for more shuffling of buses and streetcars.

"Putting all of us in one room allows us to check in with each other more easily," said Lea Militello, the agency's security chief and coordinator of the command center.

Resources shifted quickly

Putting the different divisions of the MTA together yielded some obvious benefits, Haley said. On Saturday morning, an unexpectedly large crush of people on the Embarcadero overwhelmed the E-Embarcadero and F-Market line streetcars while the special 47L-Van Ness buses on Van Ness Avenue were carrying less than full loads. The agency quickly shifted buses to the F-Market line.

Later in the day, at the end of the Blue Angels' show, crowds of pedestrians flooded the streets of Fisherman's Wharf, stalling the E-Embarcadero and F-Market line streetcars and buses. The command center started turning around vehicles at Pier 39 while sending traffic control officers to clear the streets. In less than five minutes, they were running through the area again.

While the agency's plans seemed to work, the effort pressed the overtime budget, which Muni officials have been ordered to keep under control.

Few absentee drivers

Most of the overtime, he said, was spent on extra service, not covering for operators who failed to show up. Haley said the agency had few absentee drivers over the weekend, thanks to efforts by their labor union.

MTA officials will meet this week to review what worked and what didn't and start preparations for future big events, including next year's America's Cup races.